As The World Tunes

Hearing Loss: Do We Play Too Loud?

by Steve Bussey
GeoSynchronous Records

There's really nothing else that comes close to the feeling of wrapping your fingers around that Stratocaster neck and cranking out a strong, loud A power chord with a jump in the air in front of your wall of Marshall amplifiers turned all the way up and a wind milling arm a la Peter Townshend. But, did you notice your ringing ears at the end of the night?

And there's no better way to understand the new Metallica CD than to put your digital ready headphones on, turn the Walkman volume up all the way and inject the music directly into your brain. But did you notice it was hard to hear things after you took off the headphones?

Why is it that we will spend thousands of dollars to get that certain sound, but spend nothing to preserve the natural instruments that allow us to hear and perform? In fact, many of us will ridicule those who do, if its too loud, you're too old!

Maybe wisdom comes with age, or maybe the damage from excessively loud music becomes just too great to ignore. Peter Townshend of The Who, long known for playing very, very loud, now admits to severe hearing damage. Townshend's damage is even worse than simply not being able to hear; he suffers from tinnitus, a constant ringing in the ears at guitar frequencies. "It hurts, its painful, and its frustrating", says Townshend.

Unfortunately, you don't have to have a wall of amps to hurt yourself, even a small practice amp can generate destructive volume levels. Combine that with several other players in a small club or garage over a couple of nights every week, and you have a serious potential to lose some of your hearing. A typical band like this plays at 105 to 120 decibels sound pressure level. Your employer at your day gig would be required by OSHA to limit your exposure to this volume level to one half hour or less. Longer exposure times will result in hearing loss.

What can you do? Turning down would be good, but we know that's not going to happen. Lars Ulrich of Metallica and two of his band mates wear ear plugs. Some people think ear plugs are for wimps. But if you don't want to hear any records in five or ten years, that's your own decision.

The best ear plugs are custom molded to your own ears, and are able to offer around 15 to 25 decibels of attenuation with a nearly flat frequency response. These will cost you about $125 per pair. Some people may wince at the price, but you pay that much or more for a good effects rack to protect your digital reverb unit, don't your non-replaceable ears deserve as much? Until you save up the money, the foam type you buy in the hardware store for less than a dollar actually work really well for hearing protection, but they are not flat at all on the frequency response.

I noticed several nightclubs in California and Oregon selling this type of ear plug (for a dollar) at the bar when I was on the Getterdun Tour with Les Dudek earlier this year. Good ear plugs will actually help you to hear your own playing and others better by cutting down on the distractions caused by the high sound levels. Your ears will quickly adjust to the differences and you will definitely enjoy not having your ears ring after a gig.

If you are still not convinced (or even if you are), ask your doctor to run an audiogram on your own ears. This will give an accurate graph of your hearing compared to normal and will quickly indicate any losses. It's a good idea to do this every year to keep tabs on your hearing. Hearing loss is irreversible, but wearing ear plugs now can prevent further damage to your hearing, and help you to perform and enjoy your music for years to come!

If you would like more information on hearing protection, contact the non profit organization H.E.A.R. - Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers, 415-441-9081, or check their World Wide Web site, http://www.hearnet.com .

About the author: Steve Bussey is a singer/songwriter/guitarist and is currently the owner and general manager of GeoSynchronous Records (http://www.pan.com/geosync, Listening Line 800 235 9193, ask for a free catalog), an indie label handling artists such as Les Dudek, Mike Pachelli, Bong Water Taffy, and Big Red & The Bus. Prior to this, Steve earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Acoustics from Georgia Tech, designed sound equipment and guitar amps for Fender, and supervised design of communication systems for the Space Shuttle at Kennedy Space Center.